The Council has three main tasks: research funding, science communication and research policy. Research is the foundation for the development of knowledge in society, and the basis of high-quality education. Research is also crucial as a means of enhancing welfare through economic, social and cultural development.

One essential principle is that research should be unrestricted and unaffiliated. Active researchers are therefore in a majority on the Council’s board, as in the Scientific Councils and the Committee for Educational Science, i.e. in all bodies where applications are assessed and evaluated, and grants decided upon. This guarantees the quality and diversity of basic research.

Sweden´s first long-term plan for research infrastructure

29 October 2006 - Swedish Research Council The Swedish Research Council´s Guide to Infrastructure, with a perspective of 10-20 years, is Sweden´s first long-term plan for research infrastructure. The emphasis is on field overviews in which research infrastructure, both present and planned, is placed in its context. The report presents various recommendations, identifying appropriate infrastructure projects of great importance to future research.

Contemporary research on Sweden´s relationship to Communism and Nazism

28 October 2006 - Swedish Research Council The Swedish Research Council presented the findings to date from two research programmes: “Communist Regimes' and “Sweden´s Relationship to Nazism, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust'. The findings help clarify Sweden´s relationship to communism and Nazism from the 1930s to the present.

Attraction power of pheromones challenged

27 October 2006 - Swedish Research Council It is well-documented that animals attract the opposite sex through scents, or pheromones. The belief that people can also communicate with each other in this way is widespread. In his new research, Mats Olsson from the Department of Psychology at Uppsala University, challenges the belief that pheromones play a major role in human behaviour.

Max-Lab new light on materials research

26 October 2006 - Swedish Research Council Development of new materials for superfast electronics and for highly efficient solar cells requires detailed understanding of the structure of atoms and processes at microscopic level. The same is true of the design of new drug molecules for treatment of disease. These are some of the uses of the multitalented synchrotron laboratory MAX-lab in Lund.

Interdisciplinary research led to the nobel prize for chemistry

25 October 2006 - Swedish Research Council This year's Nobel Prize for chemistry goes to Roger Kornberg, USA. He has studied how the genetic information stored in the genes is copied so that the body can use it. This is a central process for all life, if it ceases, the organism will soon die.

A Swedish roadmap for research infrastructures

24 October 2006 - Swedish Research Council The Swedish Research Council´s Guide to Infrastructure, with a perspective of 10-20 years, is Sweden´s first long-term plan for research infrastructure. The emphasis is on field overviews in which research infrastructure, both present and planned, is placed in its context. The report presents various recommendations, identifying appropriate infrastructure projects of great importance to future research. Certain fields in which further investigation is needed are also pinpointed. A summary of the key conclusions from the report is available in English, see the right column.

New microdata research

23 October 2006 - Swedish Research Council Scope for conducting ‘microdata research´, using databases and personal registers, is particularly good in Sweden. Not only does every individual resident have a unique national or civic registration number that enables him or her to be followed in several databases; there are also numerous sources of data, such as administrative registers, with detailed individual-level information. These registers contain demographic, social and financial personal particulars, for example, as well as information about people´s health and ill-health.

Flame retardants cause brain damage in young mice

01 November 2004 - Swedish Research Council Reduced adaptability, hyperactivity, and disturbances in memory and learning functions. These are deficiencies mice and rats evince when exposed to bromide flame retardants, such as those found in computers, textiles, and other materials in our surroundings, during the period when the brain develops most rapidly.